At the sign of the Goat’s Horns

Sunday 29 April 2018

Sunday 22 April 2018
At the sign of the Goat’s Horns

Source file: Les Cornes de la Chèvre

On 9 April the riot police attacked ourliving spaces. They turned up with armoured vehicles, grenades and dozens of cops.Already from the morning the gendarmes took control of the roads around theChèvrerie. From 15.00h they broke down our barricades and stationed themselves infront of the house, where some of our friends had climbed up and occupied theroof. The cops were over-confident, though, and they left their rear uncovered.That gave us the opportunity to take back the ground. And just as they thought thatthey had won, we turned up – first 20 of us, then 40, then 80. Between the teargas and the throwing of bottles, life was resumed at the Chèvrerie: somebody pouredthe coffee, we sat down with our sandwiches, and someone brought out asongbook. Eventually, at 19.00h, the riot cops recognised their failure andbeat a retreat.
We really had not expected that we wouldhave been able to hold out on that first day. Nor did we expect that we wouldhave more than 80 people coming to defend our living space. Thank you, thanksto all of you, for having made this possible.
The next morning, they came back in force.They got our friends off the roof, seriously injuring one of them in theprocess, and with two shovel blows from the digger they destroyed our littlehouse. The shack was flattened, but its parts were left almost intact. Most ofthe beams in one piece. The infokiosk and the panels survived. On the table inthe middle of the living room there was even a terracotta teapot, with teastill in it. This is exactly what they did: they demolish what is visible,without understanding that our strength lies in what lies underneath.
That same evening, we announced onceagain our determination to rebuild.
All week long, like our neighbours, wecleared the rubble instead of leaving it for the dump trucks. Everything thatcould be used to rebuild was put to one side. The rest was for using on the barricades.Dozens of people came to help us in this work. They were respectful of oursadness, and sharing our anger. The Forces of Order were not amused. They evencharged us on the day we were working on it - 60 of them against 8 of us!. On the Sunday they brought extra cops, a showof force designed to stop us from going to rebuild. On the following Saturday(21/ 4)anyway we built a little cabin, even if we couldn’t rebuild LaChèvrerie. We built a little hut to house our cats! One of them has been livinghere for seven years so it didn’t seem right to expect him to move... Then webuilt a tree platform, 7m off the ground, which was lifted into place by thirtypeople. On Monday morning, they came back to break up this assault on theirsensibilities as soon as possible.
Cost of the police operation :: € 300 000per day. Cost of rebuilding :: Zero.
Excuse us if we repeat ourselves. Weshall come back and we shall rebuild. We shall make other short-term buildings,and then, when the State finally doesn’t have the money and has sufficientlywithdrawn its puppets in blue, we shall build a real cabin. Made out of straw andclay, with rounded corners, and sculptures on the walls, and a bay window tothe South. Just like before, only better, eh? Then we shall come back tocultivate our garden, and look after the 40 trees in the orchard, and read our booksunder the willow trees, and join together in living the next adventures of theZad ..
The Chèvrerie will not fall !
Signed:
The inhabitants and inhabitants of theChèvrerie
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See the short video "La Chèvreriewill not fall":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Eql5VxGdk